Monday, April 29, 2013

Finally finished another Austrian Jager unit from Elite Miniatures. I have to say I like the earlier period with the helmets more then the later period in shakos. These guys are not going to be based but will go on sale on my web page, along with the first unit of jagers. Again the earlier Jagers from Elite only have the three figure poses - loading, firing (pictured above) and the bugler pose. The officer is a generic figure from the range.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Yesterday the boys of the Lonely Gamers Club (Leroy Simpson & Peter Hall) played a nice little 2nd Afghan War game, using a play test version of Andrew Parr's new Colonial Wargamimg Rules. We have never played this period before and it was also the first time Leroy had used his Afghans, so it was to be an interesting game. Both sides would have artillery and regular infantry, however the Afghan had no cavalry (Leroy has not finished painting them yet), but they did have two units of screaming mad warbands.

The British force was made up of 1 x Elite Company (Highlanders), 2 x Professional Regular Companies (British), 2 x Irregular Drilled Indian Companies), 1 x Battery of Guns and a unit of Drilled Bengal Lancers...all under the command of Peter Hall.

Initially all went well for Peter, his regular managed to scale a steep hill and capture a victory location on the first turn.....however

Leroy's Afghan regulars had other plans..they saw that the British Regulars were only supported by another small company of Indian troops so they would soon direct four companies to retake the feature and capture the victory marker back.

Afghan gunners look for targets

Leroy's Afghan Regulars start to assault the British held victory marker

Elite Highlanders about to be charged by a fanatic warband

More lovely lads in kilts..this time Afghan Highlander Guard

Steady lads

The fight for the summit - the British troops hold the line but withdraw in the next move due to mounting pressure on the front and flanks on their position.

More hand to hand combat in the center of the table as the British move up and try to stem the advance of the aggressive Afghans

Afghan Regulars swam over the high ground as the British troops withdraw

As the Highlanders are forced back more Afghan warriors charge over a British gun section

Indian Irregulars get the bayonet in and push back the Afghan Guard

In the end the overwhelming numbers of Afghans and time defeated the British. It was however very close, Peters Bengal Lancers managed to sneak around the Afghan lines and capture a victory marker and cause two units of Afghans to rout in the last turn. This in turn reduced the victory point margin and Leroy only one by a point...very close game.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

My second post for tonight is another unit of Leroy Simpson's Afghan Regulars from the 2nd Afghan War. The figures are again Wargames Foundry from their great North West Frontier collection and the figures pictured are the Afghan Highland Guard. There is no real evidence that they actually fought in this attire, however they do look good on the table. Plus they give a little colour to the Afghan Army.

Leroy has painted the figures straight from the Osprey Men at Arms Victoria's Enemies - India (No.3)

The range however only comes with three different figure poses, an officer (above), one advancing and one match attack pose.

This post of the first of two posts I will be placing up tonight. The first is this great Afghan tribal command stand painted by our Leroy Simpson for his almost completed 2nd Afghan War Army. The figures are, I believe, all Wargames Foundry from the Indian Mutiny range, but they fit in perfectly for any of the Victorian Wars fought either in Afghanistan or on the boarders.

Thursday, April 18, 2013

Just about every Wednesday night myself and Brian Buskell have a small game in our living room down stairs and I have always been a little reluctant in taking photos due to the poor lighting. However I thought I might give it a go with my IPhone. Well the images did not turn out too bad after all on the close shots. But the distant shots of the whole table did not work at all. The game we played last night was a nice little ECW game with three infantry and three cavalry units per side on a 6 x 4 table.

Brian picked a Parliamentarian Army and I played a Covenantor Army - Post ECW? My plan was to hold on the left and strike on the right. This was kind of how the battle went but I took some heavy hits on the way through. My middle regiment lost a round of combat and routed not once but twice. However they did manage to rally twice and remained on the field at the end of the game...cool.

The game was interesting and could have gone either way. Difficult and close terrain slowed or impaired our movement and shooting. Cavalry charges were made but were limited in success. However by the end of turn six I had taken two victory markers and destroyed enough of Brian's units to claim one of my rare to very rare victories and the photos worked out well.....win win for both.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

For the first time in a number of years I have finally painted some the figures I currently produce under licence from Peter Morbey, in the UK (Elite Miniatures). These guys are Austrian Jagers in the later uniform. The Elite range has only three basic poses - shooting, loading and the bugler. The officer is a line officer in bicorne as Peter has not designed an officer for these guys. The other Jagers in the range are in helmet (which I will paint shortly) and have the same basic three poses. They however are a nice figure and the pipe grey uniform with black webbing does make for an easier paint.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

I have just recently finished my second unit of for the Natal Native Contingent, this time however I put in a couple of the lads in beanies and wide brimmed hats. I have also slightly changed my basing by adding a mix of fine sand and small rocks to form the base. I have then dry brushed over it, added some static grass and some longer tuff. Not sure if I like the final product as it might be a little to stony for Zululand. Anyway in comparison to my earlier post on these guys I think they match in with the other unit quite well.

The figures are all Warlord Games plastics with the Empress Miniatures Boers as a leader. The Empress Miniatures figure is a little small but I think that maybe due to the thinner base. However the NNC as the Zulus very easy to paint and are a must for those wargaming the Anglo-Zulu period.